Initial Observations for Precipitation Cores With X-Band Dual Polarized Phased Array Weather Radar
Hiroshi Kikuchi, Taku Suezawa, Tomoo Ushio, Nobuhiro Takahashi, Hiroshi Hanado, Katsuhiro Nakagawa, Masahiko Osada, T. Maesaka, Koyuru Iwanami, Kazuhiro Yoshimi, Fumihiko Mizutani, Masakazu Wada, Y. Hobara
Abstract
The first X-band dual polarized phased array weather radar (DP-PAWR), which simultaneously transmits pulses of horizontal and vertical polarized radiation, was developed and installed at Saitama University, Japan, in December 2017. The DP-PAWR uses mechanical and electronic scanning at azimuth and elevation angles, respectively. It provides polarimetric precipitation measurements via 3-D volume scanning with an update rate between 10 and 60 s, for a range of up to 80 km. Here, we describe the initial DP-PAWR observation results. To evaluate the DP-PAWR observation accuracy, we compared the observational data with radar variables derived from Parsivel disdrometer data. In comparison with the disdrometer, the relative observation accuracy for the DP-PAWR radar reflectively factor had a standard deviation of 1.1 dB and mean value of 0.4 dB. We also conducted detailed observations of a developing thunderstorm using a specific differential phase (K <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">dp</sub> ) column, focusing on the K <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">dp</sub> core during the storm. The Kdp core movements provided useful information about the convection flow during the storm.